344 Raiding Yet Another Bandit's Lair
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I knew that I could had reported the Wyvern Egg to the Duke or the Chief so they would had known what attracted the Wyvern here, but I was sure the Duke might had kept it for his own family, or even sold it. Therefore, I prioritized my own gains and kept the egg for myself instead of talking anything. Like that, the egg has been slowly developing within the underground hideout for the last days.
Through these days, the Duke had finally gone back home, with no notices about Erika’s mother yet, but he had promised that he would send a message with a servant whenever he would get some news. For the moment, my plans had not changed much, I was still going to spend the next years here until I could be of age to go to the academy and level up further in there with the many dungeons they own.
While practicing me with friends and teaching them how to grind skills and gain levels efficiently, I have been doing some shady work myself. Just two days ago, I assaulted the nearest bandit hideout there was. There was only five men in there, and it seemed like a small hideout that was simply storing low-quality potions I took for myself, alongside any other loot they had. After transforming them into Vampires and killing them, I earned around 10k EXP from them, which was not enough to level up. I’ve been earning more EXP over “AFK” grind from my Familiars around the forest, but it is not near as enough.
However, tonight, I had once more gone into an assault. I decided to ask for dinner earlier and then went to sleep earlier as well, only to jump out of my window and move towards my next destination, a third bandit hideout. This one was located into the depths of the Canyon, a dangerous place which takes day to get in there… of course, if you can’t fly.
Thanks to Tier 2 Wind Magic, I was able to easily hover down to the depths of the Canyon and then explore it with Eleanora while hiding within the shadows that the night offered to us. It seems that from what I’ve learned by interrogating the bandits, they had discovered already that their leader was captured and killed, and they had begun moving further away from the nearby village in fear to be captured, this is why they moved to the depths of this canyon, hoping nobody would find their lair.
“Oh, I think that’s the entrance.” Eleanora pointed at the entrance of a cave which was being illuminated by two torches and was being protected by two men sitting over large rocks holding spears, there were also bear traps spread around, probably for any nearby monster that might try to infiltrate.
I quickly decided to spread out my senses through my [Aura] the embodiment of my Soul which I’ve been slowly strengthening through Soul Cultivation Techniques, and quickly detected several living beings inside the cave.
“There are… roughly 36… Oh, there’s more… another 6?” I wondered.
“So 42?” Eleanora wondered.
“I don’t know, these last 6 feel extremely weak compared to the healthier 36.” I said. “This is a big hideout if there are 36 men surviving in this empty rocky area, they probably hunt regularly for food and also have a large reserve of food they have stolen, perhaps… These last 6 might be prisoners or slaves.”
“Slaves… Bastards.” Eleanora muttered.
“Don’t worry, they’ll end up becoming the enslaved. You can have all the fun you want with them after we are done.” I said.
“Heh… I will.” Said Eleanora. “So what strategy are we doing? The same as before?”
“It never fails, but we’ll ramp it up a bit beforehand. I detected someone very strong inside, perhaps another leader of the bandits, his Spiritual Essence alone exuded the aura of someone around Rank 1 Peak Stage.” I said.
“Peak Stage?! That’s stronger than you…” She said.
“Hm, well, not for long.” I said. “Spore, come out.”
FLASH! FLASH! FLASH!
Quickly, I summoned three Spores, after their evolution to F Rank, they had grown stronger in their specialty, hazardous attacks. With the addition of the powerful new Skill [Mind-scrambling Smoke], I trusted they could easily put everything in chaos inside of there, and this is why I also summoned three of them.
“Camouflage Veil.”
I conjured the Tier 2 Illusion Attribute Magic [Camouflage Veil] and covered their bodies, making them almost invisible within this darkness. Thanks to my new necklace, my Illusion Magic is stronger and more effective as it has the effect of granting a [Lesser Illusion Attribute Affinity], with this, I felt rather confident that the Spores would be able to do a lot of chaos.
“Eleanora, take down the guard swiftly.” I ordered her. “Then free the Spores from your shadows and let them get inside the cave as usual.”
“Very well.”
Eleanora quickly disappeared within the darkness, using Shadow Sneak at Level 4, and then she slowly surged from behind the two guards, swinging her hand and her spear at the same time and beheading both men before they could even say a single thing.
SLASH! SLASH!
Thanks to Eleanora’s [Assassination], [Illusion], and [Stealth] Skills combined with Camouflage Veil conjured over her, she was incredibly stealthy in her movements, gaining bonus damage when attacking someone by surprise, she easily beheaded them.
With a loud thud, both heads rolled over the floor, as the bodies were swiftly retrieved by Eleanora’s shadows. It was better to kill these right away than let them alive for our plans. I’ve also learned how to infect Spirit Orbs that are dead with the Blood Contract to at least make them red-colored, so it is not all that bad…
Eleanora then nodded to me as I quickly used [Shadow Sneak] as well and got into the entrance. She freed the three Spores and then, as usual, I erected a wall of stone, quickly closing the entrance.
The screams of the bandits inside could be easily heard, fresh EXP was already being served on my plate.
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